Casino empire files for bankruptcy

Trump casinos also filed for bankruptcy court protection in 1992.
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Donald Trump's casino empire filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after months of negotiations with bondholders over restructuring a crushing $1.8 billion debt.
Trump Hotels & amp; Casino Resorts and numerous related operations filed for protection from its creditors Sunday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden, N.J.
They come even as Trump, the celebrity real estate developer and best-selling author, has returned to the spotlight this year with the television show "The Apprentice," which turned "You're fired" into a national catch phrase.
In a telephone interview Monday, Trump denied the bankruptcy was a setback. The Chapter 11 filing frees a company from the threat of creditors' lawsuits while it reorganizes its finances.
'It's a success'
"I don't think it's a failure, it's a success," Trump said. "In this case, it was just something that worked better than other alternatives. It's really just a technical thing." He declined to predict how long it will take for the company to emerge from bankruptcy.
The Trump casino business consists mainly of three Atlantic City properties -- Trump Marina, Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Plaza -- and a riverboat casino in Indiana and are only a small part of Trump's overall real estate empire.
Trump said he will remain chairman and CEO of Trump Hotels & amp; Casino Resorts, but his share would be reduced to 27 percent from 47 percent under a proposed restructuring plan reached with bondholders last month. He would still be the largest single shareholder and would still be running the company.
"The future looks very good," he said. "We have one of the most powerful gaming companies the day it comes out [of bankruptcy]. There's no way we could have done that without the 'B' word."
Trump Hotels have struggled with debt that has hampered efforts to maintain and expand the Atlantic City casinos, which have been hurt badly by new competition from the Borgata Hotel Casino & amp; Spa and other casinos. Trump said the restructured company would expand Trump Taj Mahal, the largest of the three, and renovate the others.
Jane Pedreira, an analyst for Lehman Brothers, said the reorganization should help Trump casinos stay competitive.
"This is not a doomsday scenario. He just needs to shrink his debt," Pedreira said. "When you have that much debt, you can't leverage up to affect any large-scale expansion."
1992 case
It is the second time Trump casinos filed for bankruptcy court protection. In 1992, Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Castle and Trump Plaza ended up in Chapter 11, burdened by more than $1 billion in debt and hurt by the 1990-91 recession.
Trump later regained control of the casinos, but high interest payments ate away at the company's bottom line, making it impossible to finance capital improvements at a time when competitors were luring gamblers away.
Shares of Trump Hotels & amp; Casino Resorts had been in the $2 range before an announcement in August that the company would seek bankruptcy protection. The price dipped to about 50 cents in the fall.
Trump emerged in the 1980s as New York's hottest developers, attaching his name to buildings, Atlantic City casinos and books, notably "Trump: The Art of the Deal."
After he climbed back from the troubles of the early 1990s, he chronicled his return to billionaire status in the 1997 book "Trump: The Art of the Comeback." He was back on the best seller list this year with "Trump: How to Get Rich."
His first two marriages ended in very public divorces: the first in 1990 from wife Ivana, after a marriage of nearly 15 years, the second from Marla Maples, who was the "other woman" in his first divorce, in 1999.